This is no joke. MySpace is now quietly screening and censoring users’ emails for sexual language — and I’m sure other things as well, if they’re editing out phrases as innocuous as “sex toys.” I wonder what else MySpace is looking for in users’ emails. But if that’s not a total violation of private communication between adults, they’re also combing for outgoing links on members’ pages, making judgment calls, and replacing links they don’t approve of with URLs back to the MySpace home page. Silent accusers, silent judges, forced sentence and no chance for appeal. The people mentioned below are photographers and filmmakers, not pornographers or performers.
My dear friend Steve Diet Goedde blogs,
Yesterday I had written to a friend on Myspace, and I had to use the words “sex toys” in order to describe what the Stockroom sold. When they received the email, Myspace had replaced “sex toys” with ### ####. And then this morning, my photographer buddy Geoff Cordner informed me that Myspace had removed all links to his site from his Myspace profile. I tried it on my profile, and sure enough, all links to my site now direct to the Myspace home page. Umm, I think we’re living in China now.
Update 12.16: MySpace seems to be censoring LGBT organizations as well. And it’s rather appalling when you consider why they might censor the types of queer orgs they are. Here’s this email:
Violet,
After reading your post about MySpace censorship, I told my friends to
check their pages. One came back with the news that her link to
Scouting for All (an inclusive scouting organization, www.scoutingforall.org
) has been replaced with a link to MySpace’s homepage. It seems
inclusivity is now inappropriate.
And, another email report:
Hello
I thought I’d mention that I checked, and Myspace has redirected my
links on 3 of the 4 profiles I have there.I don’t know if it’s because the content isn’t adult, or because they
haven’t gotten to it yet, but I have two links in blog posts that
were not changed, links that go to non-adult content hosted on adult
domains.Also, Halcyon had an issue with them recently: http://twitter.com/Halcyon/statuses/501879182
FG
More info — suggests different types of URL changes, most likely to jack MySpace’s pageviews. Feel tricked when you click on a user’s link lately? (But does not explain the email censorship or make the yucky taste of LGBT link removal go away; the email censorship is no doubt a filtering program with “sex toys” listed as one of the terms for it to delete/modify.):
Hi,
A couple of months ago I was updating my MySpace, idly clicked on one of the links I had set up there and was directed to the MySpace homepage. After checking the html in the edit page, I realized that all my links had been changed. I tried changing them back, hit “save” and saw to my horror that they obviously have some program in place that automatically changes outgoing links to the MySpace Home URL. Disappointingly lame. I warned friends to check their own links and got uneven responses. Some found theirs changed and un-fixable like mine, and others (some in the same city I live in) had links that still worked. Those people have since reported back, “Oh, hey, y’know what?”
For whatever groan-inducing reason, I think this is something they’re doing to links across the board, regardless of content. My links were to my Flickr, Blogger, etc., none of which are particularly “adult” themed. Their thinking must be something along the lines of, “We can’t have all these links to the Outside. People won’t be looking at our ad banners if they’re constantly clicking away from us.” Something just as simple and stupid as that.
Bunny
Update 12.17: Here are some evil twists from two well-known sex bloggers:
The same crap happened to me a few months back: for me it was a link to my Blogger/Blogspot hosted blog that was being blocked and redirected back to the Myspace homepage. I sent three complaints to Myspace – I’ve still heard nothing back, no explanation, nothing. But I discovered that by changing the link on my Myspace page from girlwithaonetrackmind.blogspot.com to girlwithaonetrackmind.co.uk, I’ve resolved the problem. Fine for me – who can have the link redirect back to my blog- but what about all those other bloggers who use only Blogger software and whom also like to link that on their Myspace pages? Is it a total block to non-Myspace blogs I wonder?
I hate Myspace and all this has just given me another reason to loathe it more.
Zx
#
Dear Violet:
I saw your Myspace post. I thought you should know – my account was deleted last month for violating their TOS:
“Your MySpace account has been deleted for violating our Terms of Service.
This is usually due to one of the following:
* Nude images, sexually suggestive or violent photos
* Covering our banner ads with HTML
* Harassing other users
* You do not meet the minimum age requirement
* Spamming the classifieds, forums, bulletins, or other sections of the site
* Attempting to artificially inflate scores
* Scripting the site”I don’t have any pictures except for the logo.
I said I was 100.
I certainly didn’t do any anything like spam the site or cover their banner ads.
The “About Me” section linked to the blog. That was it!I switched to Facebook, as you know.
xxx
Viviane
